I salute you.

(an email I received today)

Subject: FW: National Anthem[/align][/align][/align]





*For those who areunaware, at a military theater, the National Anthem is played before everymovie.
[/align]Froma Chaplain in Iraq :

I recently attended a showing of "Superman 3," here at LSA Anaconda.
We have a large auditorium we use for movies, as well as memorialservices andother large gatherings. [/align]As is the custom back in the States, we stood andsnapped to attention when the National Anthem began before the mainfeature.

All was going as planned until about three-quarters of the way throughThe National Anthem music stopped. [/align]Now, what would happen if this occurredwith 1,000 18-22 year-olds back in the States? I imagine there would behoots,catcalls, laughter, a few rude comments and everyone would sit down andcallfor a movie. [/align]Of course, that is, if they had stood for the National Anthem inthe first place.

Here, the 1,000 Soldiers continued to stand atattention, eyes fixed forward. The music started again. [/align]The Soldierscontinuedto quietly stand at attention. And again, at the same point, the music stopped.

What would you expect to happen? Even here I would imagine laughter, as everyone finally sat [/align]down and expected the movie to start.

But here, you could have heard a pin drop. Every Soldier continued to stand at attention. [/align]Suddenly there was a lone voice, then a dozen, and quickly the room was filled with the voices [/align]of a thousand soldiers,finishing where the recording left off:

"And the rockets red glare,
The bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yetwave, [/align]O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave"
[/align]It was the most inspiring moment I have had here in Iraq . I wanted you to know what kind [/align]of Soldiers are serving you here. [/align][/align]Rememberthemas they fight for you! Pass this along as a reminder to others to beever in prayer for all our soldiers serving us here, at home, [/align]and abroad. For many have already paid the ultimate price......

Written by Chaplain Jim Higgins

LSAAnaconda is at the Balad Airport in Iraq,north of Bagdad[/align]

 

Good post. My brother is serving in Iraq right now.

 

Very good post RJ!
Thanks for sharing that.

When the National Anthem stopped, I would have thought it meant incoming, grab your weapon. Shows what I know.

There are quite a few members here serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, including a couple moderators. Plus at least one member that I can think of, who is in the CanadianArmed Forces. Hyperfox is currently in Afghanistan, and is from CFB Petawawa. He has shared many stories and pics when he came home from overseas.

 

I've heard it said, and even read that the amercian public does not support our troops or this war. (I'm not one of these)

When they're here shooting innocent people and bombing all over the country we'll be wishing we had went THERE to stop these people.

To Hillary and Obama who both say we need to get out of Iraq, I reply "You go over and stay for a month and see how you feel about this when you get back. Cause as of right now........... NEITHER of you will get my vote this november!!"

 

My brother put it like this: Either we fight over there, or they bring the war over here. I agreed with the war to begin with, but now I think it's starting to become a lost cause. The troops are doing amazing things over in Iraq, my brother tells me, but him and I agree it is time to start coming home. He is on his third tour over there. My point being, I may not agree 100% with the war, but you had better believe that I support our men and women over there.

 

RJ.

Good original post, I wish you would have stopped there. Unfortunately you went on to add this:

"We have to fight them there, so we don't have to fight them here"

This is such pure and utter hogwash I don't even know where to start. We, as Americans, don't need "Their" help (whoeverTHEY might be), with shooting innocent people and bombing all over the country. We can handle that pretty well ourselves. Don't believe it? Look it up.....

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/20...H_GRAPHIC.html
http://www.foxnews.com/us/index.html

As far as bombs go, while we aren't seeing it every day, we DO see bombings in America, such as Oklahoma City, the Unabomber, Eric Rudolph, and there are more than that.

It IS possible to support the troops and not the war, its not the troops fault that they are sent wherever they are sent, they are just following orders.

Unfortunate as it may be, we have now broken Iraq, so it's up to us to fix it now. We may very well be there as long as we've been in Germany and Japan. I'm just glad my kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, and so on, won't be paying for it, as I don't have any.

Another thing I'll add, and I'm sure it will PO a lot of people, is if YOU (not just RJ) support the war, YOU (not just RJ) can sign up and spend 15 months at a time in Iraq, showingYOUR true support for the war. Don't let age (they raised the enlistment age to 42, I think), physical issues, criminal records, or anything else stop you from looking into it, head on down to your local recruiting office and show them how much you support the war. I understand they are looking for a few good men and women right f'ing now!

As a veteran, I support the troops and everything they do. I don't support people sending them to fight and die over lies and misinformation. I wish we had committed the troops we have in Iraq to Afghanistan instead. That is where the real problem existed (and still exists) after September 11. If you think Iraq supported Al Quaida, you are seriously mistaken. They wanted to go after the few that had taken up residence in the northeast corner of Iraq, but the terrorists had taken up residence inside the U.S. monitored no-fly zones, and we wouldn't let them kill them, and we wouldn't do it ourselves.

The worst thing about this war is found right here:

http://icasualties.org/oif/

If the "Surge" is going so well, why are we still having so many of our folks killed and wounded? What is "acceptable" to all you war supporters? So far this month 23 of our troops have been killed in Iraq, is that accepable to you? And why in the he** does it take more than five years to train Iraqis, when we train our people in 3 months or less?

As for pulling out of Iraq, whenever we do, now or 50 years from now, it will be a bloodbath, because those folks hold grudges forever. The first to be killed will be the terrorists, and then it will be Iraqi vs Iraqi. Wish this wasn't true, but it is.

 

Mad717, in response all I have for you is that I did go to my local recruiter, I did sign up, and I am currently deployed over "HERE."

In our country, we are free to prosecute our own people when they kill our innocent. HERE the shootings/gassings/rapeswere carried out by the government/ruling bodies, suicide is not an option because there is no one to care for the remaining family, unless it's a suicide bomning, which in most cases are coerced, and carried out only on the promise that the family will be taken care of after the death. The people in our country doing the things you describe are under our jurisdiction, and there are consequences.

Iraq has serious problems right now, that is true. So does Afghanistan,so doother countries HERE, as it has been put.Are we making strides to fix some of those problems? Definately. Are we training people to help themselves here? Definately. Are people still trying to stop us, are they still trying to spread hate for us, are they still killing the people recruited in service of the new democratic government? Yes. But people HERE are fighting back, people HERE have some hope, and the people HERE still spreading havoc are not killing our children on our ground anymore, and are not putting bombs in the stadiums you go to for football/baseball/basketball/racing events. So are we doing good things? You tell me. It may take a long time to finish, but whenI re-up in 2 years, I'll know it's worth it and that I've affected an untold number of lives.

 

Good for you Krista, glad to hear you're doing well.

My point was, the terrorists wouldn't be in Iraq if we weren't. Also, I'm pretty sure we're paying the people there (the so-called "awakening councils") to do all the things you say, $400 per month per man, if I'm not mistaken, and also, incidently, not to kill our guys, which many are doing anyway.

I'm curious, since you are there, why do you think Al-Sadr is holding his cease fire, how much are we paying him? Also, if you happen to know, why don't we just kill that f***?

Also, if I'm not mistaken, many of the killings "there" are still carried out by the police and Iraqi Army, aren't they?

Also, killing our children on our ground? WTF, over?

Another thing, if we were so concerned with the innocent Iraqis the government was killing, why didn't we invade when they were gassed? Why, when we did invade, was the only building we protected the oil ministry? Why did we let all the looting happen?

If now all of a sudden we are concerned about innocents being killed, why aren't we doing something, anything, in Darfur?

 

I think a lot of people confuse supporting our troops with supporting war. I don't like war. 99% of people don't like war, including our troops fighting the war.

I may not support war in general, or some of the politics involved in it. But I support the troops 100%. It takes a lot to voluntarily go over to a part of the world that hates us and subject yourself to everything that's going on over there.

Let's not kid ourselves. On 9/11 Al-Quaida declared war, and brought their war over here. The U.S., Canadian, and other supporting countries militaries, moved the war back over there.

The fact is, there is now a war going on. I would rather have that war over there, then here. I'm glad that I can drive or walkdown a street not having to worry about landmines, IED's, carbombs, and everything else our troops are facing. I'm glad our farmers can farm their fields without having to search for landmines first. I'm glad we can all celebrate our religions openly without having to worry that a bunch of guys are going to kidnap me and chop my head off. And so on.

I hate that our troops have to be over there risking their lives because of a terrorist group that can't play nice. But like the old saying goes, "Freedom isn't free. If you enjoy your freedom, thank a soldier."

As for people's opinions on the Iraq war, and the Presidential candidate's views...
I think a lot of people are feeling mis-led by the government. For lots of reasons. But simply packing up and going home now, only tells the terrorist groups that the U.S. will go away if you can hold out long enough.

I also think that too many of us in the U.S. (and Canada too) got too used to the idea ofhaving a "hands off" war. Where all we had to do waspush a button and a lot of bombs go to a place far away, and go boom. No one on our side gets hurt.I think seeing this"traditional style" hand to hand combat is something a lot of us are not used to.

I can't help but think about this "pack up and go home" attitude, and think about WW2. What if they had that attitude back then? What do you think the world would be like now, if they hadn't stuck it out to the end?

 

I hear ya, Taz, but WWII wasn't fought with one arm behind their backs, either. Could you imagine the outrage if we carpet bombed or fire bombed a city like we did in Dresden?

Let the troops fight to win, the terrrorists don't recognize international borders, when we know their whereabouts, we should go in and get them. Do you think Dwight Eisenhower would have stopped bombing the Germans just because they hid in Pakistan, or Syria, or Iran? Or would have stopped Patton's tanks at the border? I doubt it.

Sorry to hurt anyones feelings here, but 5 years is longerthan our entire time spent fighting WWII. If some civilians get killed (who are helping those we are fighting, so they are with them, not against them), too f*ing bad.

Also, we won the Iraq war. Within a matter of weeks, we had taken control of the entire country. It's the occupation that is causing us problems. Of course, putting 500,000 war fighting men out of work (Bremer) by firing the entire Iraqi army (the majority of whom didn't stand and fight us) didn't help much, either.